A new survey of security professionals reveals that 83 percent say that most of their time is wasted fixing the PCs of colleagues in other departments.

The study by security management company FireMon shows a further 80 percent say this is taking up more than an hour of their working week, which in a year could equate to more than $88,000.

For organisations, eight percent of professionals surveyed helping colleagues out five hours a week or more could be costing over $400,000. Organisations are potentially paying qualified security professionals salaries upwards of $100,000 a year and seeing up to 12.5 percent of that investment being spent on non-security related activities.

Michael Callahan, CMO of FireMon said that IT security professionals were faced with a growing complexity and skills gap and keeping up with technology investments and advancements, but they are also expected by colleagues to help them sort out their personal computing woes.

"IT personnel are usually the helpful, go-to people for sorting out issues, but it's only when you start to cost it out that you realize how much money it equates to. This is on top of a very demanding job where they often juggle many different workstreams and projects, oftentimes relying on strictly manual processes and workflows. Fortunately, for this aspect of their role, there are intelligent automation solutions available that help them keep their day-to-day work, like managing the network infrastructure and risk, on track."

Fruity cargo cult Apple might be in serious trouble as most Apple fanboys say they will not upgrade to the iPhone 7.

A survey by Quartz reveals that if Apple doesn't dramatically alter the iPhone 7 from the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, nearly 90 percent of iPhone users will not upgrade.

This is a turnaround from the days where Apple could put out whatever it liked and people would upgrade anyway. While we estimate six million Apple fanboys would still do that, it looks like the rest of them are looking at what is being said about the iPhone 7 and will give it a miss.

Apple took a big risk this year, as its sales were shrinking it decided to issue an iPhone 7 which was practically the same as the iPhone 6S. We are guessing it assumed that users would not notice.

The online survey, which involved 525 respondents through SurveyMonkey, showed that nearly 63 percent of users wanted a revamped iPhone and it is starting to look like they will not get one.

In fact, it looks like the tiny changes for the iPhone 7 will be annoying – such as getting rid of the headphone jack. Some users suggested that they think that Apple is going to restrict all of the worthwhile updates to the 7 Plus/ Pro which will make the iPhone 7 the Vista of Apple’s products.

Other than sliding sales, Apple has started to worry about the large number of Apple fanboys who have not even upgraded to the iPhone 6S. CEO Tim Cook has said that 60 percent of iPhone users own a version older than iPhone 6. Telcos are also getting less interested in subsidising upgrades for new iPhones.

Jobs' Mob is testing out a new program that lets users pay off a new phone on credit, and then update once a year, which might help move fanboys even if they don’t really want, or need to upgrade.

However, the long term problem is that the Apple cult is losing control over its fanboys and they are actually starting to think different. The worry is that in a couple of decades they might start making sane purchasing choices.

Namco Bandai is asking fans to help them choose the new look for Pac Man in its upcoming game. The survey is on the company’s Facebook site.

The site shows a number of different takes on the Pac Man concept. There is everything from retro to modern, and two more in between. Besides choosing which Pac Man concept you like, you also get to vote on where you want to play your casual games.

Pac Man has enjoyed a lot of new life lately with the release of the Championship Edition DX, which really took the game to another level, and gave Namco Bandai a hit with very high review scores.

Well what did you expect? After all, mobile gaming is exactly that - mobile gaming, and the latest study showed just why some find it so appealing. Namely, a recent study looked at gaming habits in the U.K. and U.S. and found that mobile gaming gets quite popular in church, car and even the movies, which speaks volumes about Hollywood.

The study was conducted by Information Solutions Group research firm and released by PopCap Games. Interestingly enough, the study claims that half of mobile gamers tend to stick to their mobile devices for gaming even when at home.

Apparently, playing on the couch remains the most popular at 69 percent, while gaming in cars, busses and trains comes in close second at 63 percent. 57 percent said they play at home in bed while 55 percent do it while waiting for appointments. 41 percent does it while watching TV.

As many as 10 percent of mobile gamers threw some frustrated birds around while sitting in a house of worship, while driving and in movies. Amen to that then.

A survey of teens show that they are telling porkies to their parents about what what they do online.

The survey, which conducted by McAfee, belongs to the “no shit Sherlock” school of surveys where the obvious is exposed to the light of day. However the obvious does not necessarily apply to modern parents who think that their precious little snowflake will never get into trouble if they are protected with three layers of bubble wrap.

The survey confirms that teens will not break down and confess to watching hard-core donkey porn because their mummies ask them. In fact they are more likely to click the machine closed and claim that they are watching sports, or doing their homework.

In a statement, McAfee said nearly half of the American parents it surveyed thought their adolescents told them everything they did online. Although more than half of them also thought George W Bush was an ideal president and evolution should not be taught in schools.

These parents felt that they were in control when monitoring their youngsters' online conduct and their child would obey them because that was what the bible said they had to do. However when McAfee asked the teens, more than 70 per cent admitted that they got around parental monitoring and did what the liked online.

In 2010 only 45 per cent of teens said they had hidden their online behaviour from a parent. Teens are now dab hands at clearing the history closing or minimising a browser when a parent was present, McAfee said. Some had to go to tougher efforts including hiding or deleting instant messages or videos, lying or omitting details about online activities, using a computer that parents don't check, and using a smartphone.

McAfee online safety expert Stanley Holditch said that teens belonged to a generation that is so comfortable with technology that they are surpassing their parents in understanding. He claimed however that rather than turning into balanced individuals that had integrated and balanced their parents' over-controlling behaviour, they were actually putting their safety at risk.

The survey indicated 43 per cent of teenagers had accessed simulated violence online instead of watching it on TV. More than 36 per cent accessed sexual topics and 32 per cent saw nude content or pornography. [Which means the other 65 percent are liars. Ed]

McAfee did not state why this was so dangerous. When we were growing up we were driving around in cars at high speed and trying to get laid. Some of the staff here were dodging sniper bullets when they were teens. It seems that this new internet lifestyle is a lot safer than earlier generations – kids of today are soft.

Mid-sized businesses in the UK are Europe's worst performers when it comes to managing information risk.

According to recent research from information management firm Iron Mountain and PwC showed that the British are bit rubbish when it came to security. The survey involved 600 senior managers of mid-sized European businesses in the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Spain.

The analysts compiled an index based on a set of measures that, if put in place and frequently monitored, would help protect the information held by an organization. Of the six countries included, the UK consistently fared the worst, achieving a score of only 55.08 against a target of 100. While there was no stand-out performer in Europe, Hungary outperformed the other European countries with the highest overall index score of 61.

Christian Toon, head of information risk at Iron Mountain Europe said it was a surprise that the British performed so badly. It was not as if they were playing football or anything.

"High-profile data breaches receive such widespread media attention in the UK, seriously damaging brand reputation. But the findings reveal that though many British businesses do have a data protection and information risk strategy in place, most fail to monitor its effectiveness," he said.

In Hungary, with its high level of ISO certification, businesses are more likely to have training programs, clear guidance, codes of conduct and employee communication programs in place. Toon said that while some countries performed better than others, the results suggest that there is a problem across the board with the way businesses regard information risk.

"Too few see the risk as a serious threat to their business. Addressing this shortcoming must start from the top. It's time for the Boardroom to start making Corporate Information Responsibility an integral part of their organisation, just as many have done with Corporate Social Responsibility," he said.

A real survey has managed to back aspects of hoax report earlier this year which claimed that people who used Internet Explorer had a lower IQ than those using other browsers.

Projection Point decided to carry out a poll to compare the risk intelligence (RQ) of people using different browsers. It found that Internet Explorer users performed worse than everyone else; they had lower RQ scores and were grossly overconfident.

Risk Intelligence is the ability to estimate probabilities accurately. Its test consisted of fifty statements which were either true or false and punters had to say how likely they thought each statement was. More than 351 took part and it seems that users of monopoly software that historically has been responsible for many of the most severe software vulnerabilities are not as good at estimating probabilities as their more adventurous counterparts.

Use of Microsoft Internet Explorer should be considered an indicator of poor risk intelligence, the report said. This would be consistent with studies showing that the computers of Internet Explorer users contain more malicious software than the machines of those using other browsers, that about 7% of downloads by Internet Explorer users are malicious and that the browser is amongst the most popular means of infecting Windows machines.

Sadly the creditably of the report has to be questioned when it claims that Apple users are the best when it comes to dealing with risk. As everyone in the IT world knows Apple users are incredibily naïve when it comes to risk assessments and actually believe everything that Apple tells them as 100 per cent true. Many believe their software is compeletely invulnerable to viruses and when it comes to proprietary, you cannot find a more proprietary company than Apple.

In what has to be the most unfair survey conclusion we have seen, Game House has decided that women who play online games are more likely to have sex than those who don't connect. The implication is that women online gamers are easy like Sunday morning.

Game House used Harris Interactive for its 2000 person study. They found that females that play online games have a healthier social life and more frequent sexual activity than female gamers that don’t.

Just under half of female online gamers socialise in-person with at least one person a day while only 31 percent of female non-online gamers do the same. Eighty-six percent of female online gamers are also active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter while only 71 percent of female non-online gamers use social networks.

The sex question revealed that 57 percent of female online gamers have sex while only 52 percent of female non-online gamers are sexually active. More than 38 percent of female online gamers have sex at least once a week.

So does this mean that they are all brazen hussies? No, not really. More than two-thirds are married and any sex is probably with their husband. Twenty-two percent never married and 14 percent are separated, divorced or widowed.

Over a third of female online gamers play sports or work out while only 34 percent of female non-online gamers do the same. More than half of female online gamers say that online games make them happy and they feel smarter when playing online games.

Thirty-eight percent of female online gamers have kids under the age of eighteen and 61 percent of female online gamers play between 8 pm and midnight. We wonder what would have happened if they had asked the same questions of blokes?

Analyst outfit Forrester is shocked that more than 41 per cent of companies ban employees using Apple toys on their networks. This appears to be the result of a new Forrester survey of IT executives at North American and European companies which says that evil IT management will not allow employee-owned Macs access to any company resources, even Web-based e-mail.

Forrester asked 590 IT executives and technology decision-makers if employee-owned Macs are granted access to resources like Web-based e-mail, hosted applications and virtual desktops, internal networks, and native e-mail applications said they would not let an Apple gismo have any access at all. The report is pro-Apple and claims that companies are unfairly prejudiced against the Mac, it ignores the fact that a third of companies block access from any employee-owned computer or device.

Forrester says that since “People are bringing Macs to Work—It’s time to repeal prohibition.” The logic is of course that when people start bringing in rabid dogs to work companies should also set up a petting park. Forrester analyst David Johnson wines that it is all because of brainwashing from Microsoft which has had two decades of Microsoft management traditions are either prohibiting Macs on the company network or limiting their support to executives only.

Forrester notes that Macs pose technology challenges to IT shops accustomed to Windows. But these challenges can be overcome, and giving employees more choice will improve productivity, Forrester says Johnson made the claim that employees who seek out new technologies tend to be more productive and serve customers more effectively. Macs today are being freewheeled into the office by executives, top sales reps, and other workaholics, he writes. So therefore they must be good.

What Johnson failed to point out in his pro-Apple sales pitch was that there is a damn fine reason why companies keep Apple toys off their networks. Firstly Apple networking has always been inferior to any other system. Apple toys are easy to hack and notoriously bad at correcting security flaws which means that a security department has an hope hole on their network for a long time. Secondly Apple gear does not play very well with other gear, which means that IT departments have to spend a fortune setting up new kit so the Apple fanboys in their company can listen to Coldplay.

Lastly there is a fundamental flaw in allowing an outside company onto your network which runs an walled garden of information and networking systems that you do not control. Rather than allowing “more choice” on the network, Apple gear is exclusive.

New research from a UK’s discount website has revealed that 34 per cent of gamers in the UK only buy second hand video games, as opposed to buying brand new. Furthermore, 11 per cent never buy games and rely on Christmas and birthday presents as a means of receiving them.

It would appear that Britons are looking to save money in as many ways as possible, as a new study has revealed that 34 per cent of gamers only purchase second hand video games for their console. According to a poll conducted by www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk polled a total of 1,336 people from across the UK, each of whom owned a games console, in order to try and find out how gamers are trying to save money.

Respondents were initially asked if they ever bought second hand games, to which the majority, 56 per cent said that they did. Furthermore, 34 per cent of those polled said that they only ever bought second hand games, and when asked to explain why, the majority, 62 per cent, said it was because new video games were just too expensive.

However, 14 per cent of those polled said that they only bought new games. When asked why, 59 per cent of these respondents said that they didn’t trust that second hand games would work properly, whilst 32 per cent thought they would make more money from selling on new games when they had finished with them.

Furthermore, 11 per cent of those polled admitted that they never purchased games for themselves and relied on gifts, such as birthday or Christmas presents, for games, in order to save money. When asked how much they usually spent on games per year, the average answer from those that only bought second hand games was £210, compared with £480 for those that only bought brand new games.

Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk said it was amazing how much money you can save by buying second hand games.